Lessons on Living from Moses ,THE SALVATION BOAT

Daily Strength Blog

Exodus 2:3
But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.

Boats have played an important role in God’s plan of salvation through the cen turies. Genesis 6 tells of Noah’s enormous ark (450 feet long, 45 feet high and 75 feet wide), which God used to save eight mem bers of the human race during the flood that overwhelmed the world.

Exodus 2 describes a much smaller boat— actually no more than a reed basket covered with pitch to make it waterproof. But it played an important role in saving the life of baby Moses, whom God used as an adult to bind together a ragtag group of people into the nation of Israel. And out of this nation came Jesus, the Messiah and Savior.

Jesus Himself is also compared with a boat. In his first epistle, Peter reminds his readers of the ark that saved eight people from the flood. Then he says, “There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh [i.e., not the literal physical baptism] but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).
We are baptized (literally “put” or “placed”) into Christ at the time of our salva tion. He becomes our boat. Just as the ark saved Noah and his family from the wrath of the flood and the basket-boat saved Moses from certain death in the Nile, so Christ offers us a place of safety from the wrath that God will someday pour out on sin (Romans 5:9-10; Revelation 6:17).

The question you need to ask yourself is, “Am I in the boat or am I in the water?” Have you received Christ as your Savior? Will you be saved from God’s wrath to come because you are safely “in Christ Jesus”? Only Jesus can keep you afloat when troubled waters come. Trust Him as your Savior and begin to enjoy new life in God’s ark of salvation.

WHEN THE WATER THREATENS TO OVERWHELM YOU, THE ONLY SAFE PLACE IS IN THE BOAT.